Yesterday was a disappointment.
I woke at 8am and began my mental preparation for my 20mile run. I wasn’t looking forward to it considering the furthest I’ve ran in the past month has only been 10 miles. A month before that was 15 miles. But I have some catching to do, so I was determined to pull this weekend warrior routine and just get this run over with. I had my normal breakfast of peanut butter and jam toast with a cup of coffee. An hour passed but I still felt tired from the day before, so I read the remaining pages of the Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes. A solid theme remained throughout the book, run with your heart. Which is true, I love running because it’s my source of outlet. All the negativity that bothers me just seems to disappear after a run. But during my run, any negative thought slows me down (unless they're angry thoughts). The "I can't, I'm tired etc.. " is negative. The "I'm going to kick my bosses butt" is angry thought.
At 11am I started to get changed. I will do some stretches and loosen up my left calf and hip that seems tight. I won’t run at noon time when the sun is at its’ worst. I’ll aim for 1pm and I’ll start hydrating myself now. The weather is not too hot and it should be cooler where I’ll be at. I started to clean my camel pack but realized it’s dirty and I need to change the tube. There’s some nasty green slime in there.
At 1pm I took off towards Lake Merced. Plan is, park at the lake, run down Ocean beach and back, that’s 12 miles then do one and 3/4 laps around the lake to total roughly 20 miles. I made a pit stop on Peninsula Ave to pick up a few bottles of water. Since I can’t use my 1.5 L camel pack I’ll have to hand carry a 750ml and do a refill at the car.
The wind was growing stronger and it seemed to have blown my motivation away. I made a U-turn and drove back to El Camino and headed towards Foster City. I’ll just run around that city. I’ve always wanted to find the path that loops around the whole city. I have no idea how far that run would be, but I knew it wasn’t going to reach 20 miles. In fact, I should just park at home and run there. Such a lazy ass.
1:45pm I’m parked half a mile from the Hillsdale overpass and I begin my run Northbound. ‘Shit, I need to pee. What should I do? Gosh, I’m full of excuses. The urge will pass. Maybe the bladder will reabsorb urine. Does the bladder do that?’ I started to back track in to physiology.. what cells line the bladder and if absorption is possible. It didn’t matter though, the liquid was swooshing around my bladder creating a constant stimuli to do what’s natural. I didn’t have luxury to count on the probability of a re-absorption theory. To my right the path is lined with city hedges about 3 feet tall, its’ separated by a narrow dirt path then lined by beautiful hedges taken care of by the home owners of Foster City. I could jump in there and if I squat low enough, and remove my bright blue cap this may work. No, I’m not desperate enough. Who lives in Foster City? I can count 5 friends and I know where they live. How awkward to call your friends so you can sit on their toilet with your sweaty butt. I wouldn’t do that, besides, if I had to make a detour I may as well hit a public store. The urge is growing and it’s damping my run. I have to soften my stride to lessen the jarring. I’m reaching the 92 overpass and I see two thick pillars supporting the bridge.
Oh gosh headdump, BE A MAN!! There’s a lady in her 40’s wearing bright yellow walking about 200 ft behind me, but who’s in front of me and how far? I dashed up to the pillar, turned off my iPOD and I made it out well in advance of Ms. 40’s approach but barely clearing the scene of two cyclists from the opposite direction. Aye Headdump, the things you do. 
My run following my brave attempt was great. Despite the wind I made it to my favorite restaurant, Joy, with still half a bottle of water left. So I took a few big gulps thinking I have plenty to spare, just to see that those gulps left me with less than ¼ of liquid! Damn HD, why do you do shit like that? I don’t know how much longer I have to run. The remainder of this route has absolutely no shading. Actually the whole trail doesn’t have shading. I was starting to heat up. It’s probably another ½ hour run? Can’t tell, I’ve always driven around here. Well, water is easier to deal with than needing a washroom. If it gets really bad I can knock on someone’s door for tap water. It can never be as bad as the time I ran in 90deg weather with no water. The stupid things I do. My stomach started to cramp and I had to walk. Salt was flaking off my face and arms. I felt so sick I had to wave some cyclists down. But no one stopped because they were all going so fast.. I obviously made it no problem, but that was a big lesson for me.
I reached my car with no water left. None in my bottle, none in my bladder. The whole run felt like some ordeal but I had a feeling I didn’t run as far as I thought. I may be thirsty but my muscles could take me much further. Only an hour and half passed. That’s about roughly 9 miles? That’s less than half of what I was supposed to do!! What a disappointment. I have 6 weeks before the SF marathon. I’ll let you guys know how that goes.
I woke at 8am and began my mental preparation for my 20mile run. I wasn’t looking forward to it considering the furthest I’ve ran in the past month has only been 10 miles. A month before that was 15 miles. But I have some catching to do, so I was determined to pull this weekend warrior routine and just get this run over with. I had my normal breakfast of peanut butter and jam toast with a cup of coffee. An hour passed but I still felt tired from the day before, so I read the remaining pages of the Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes. A solid theme remained throughout the book, run with your heart. Which is true, I love running because it’s my source of outlet. All the negativity that bothers me just seems to disappear after a run. But during my run, any negative thought slows me down (unless they're angry thoughts). The "I can't, I'm tired etc.. " is negative. The "I'm going to kick my bosses butt" is angry thought.
At 11am I started to get changed. I will do some stretches and loosen up my left calf and hip that seems tight. I won’t run at noon time when the sun is at its’ worst. I’ll aim for 1pm and I’ll start hydrating myself now. The weather is not too hot and it should be cooler where I’ll be at. I started to clean my camel pack but realized it’s dirty and I need to change the tube. There’s some nasty green slime in there.
At 1pm I took off towards Lake Merced. Plan is, park at the lake, run down Ocean beach and back, that’s 12 miles then do one and 3/4 laps around the lake to total roughly 20 miles. I made a pit stop on Peninsula Ave to pick up a few bottles of water. Since I can’t use my 1.5 L camel pack I’ll have to hand carry a 750ml and do a refill at the car.
The wind was growing stronger and it seemed to have blown my motivation away. I made a U-turn and drove back to El Camino and headed towards Foster City. I’ll just run around that city. I’ve always wanted to find the path that loops around the whole city. I have no idea how far that run would be, but I knew it wasn’t going to reach 20 miles. In fact, I should just park at home and run there. Such a lazy ass.
1:45pm I’m parked half a mile from the Hillsdale overpass and I begin my run Northbound. ‘Shit, I need to pee. What should I do? Gosh, I’m full of excuses. The urge will pass. Maybe the bladder will reabsorb urine. Does the bladder do that?’ I started to back track in to physiology.. what cells line the bladder and if absorption is possible. It didn’t matter though, the liquid was swooshing around my bladder creating a constant stimuli to do what’s natural. I didn’t have luxury to count on the probability of a re-absorption theory. To my right the path is lined with city hedges about 3 feet tall, its’ separated by a narrow dirt path then lined by beautiful hedges taken care of by the home owners of Foster City. I could jump in there and if I squat low enough, and remove my bright blue cap this may work. No, I’m not desperate enough. Who lives in Foster City? I can count 5 friends and I know where they live. How awkward to call your friends so you can sit on their toilet with your sweaty butt. I wouldn’t do that, besides, if I had to make a detour I may as well hit a public store. The urge is growing and it’s damping my run. I have to soften my stride to lessen the jarring. I’m reaching the 92 overpass and I see two thick pillars supporting the bridge.
Oh gosh headdump, BE A MAN!! There’s a lady in her 40’s wearing bright yellow walking about 200 ft behind me, but who’s in front of me and how far? I dashed up to the pillar, turned off my iPOD and I made it out well in advance of Ms. 40’s approach but barely clearing the scene of two cyclists from the opposite direction. Aye Headdump, the things you do. My run following my brave attempt was great. Despite the wind I made it to my favorite restaurant, Joy, with still half a bottle of water left. So I took a few big gulps thinking I have plenty to spare, just to see that those gulps left me with less than ¼ of liquid! Damn HD, why do you do shit like that? I don’t know how much longer I have to run. The remainder of this route has absolutely no shading. Actually the whole trail doesn’t have shading. I was starting to heat up. It’s probably another ½ hour run? Can’t tell, I’ve always driven around here. Well, water is easier to deal with than needing a washroom. If it gets really bad I can knock on someone’s door for tap water. It can never be as bad as the time I ran in 90deg weather with no water. The stupid things I do. My stomach started to cramp and I had to walk. Salt was flaking off my face and arms. I felt so sick I had to wave some cyclists down. But no one stopped because they were all going so fast.. I obviously made it no problem, but that was a big lesson for me.
I reached my car with no water left. None in my bottle, none in my bladder. The whole run felt like some ordeal but I had a feeling I didn’t run as far as I thought. I may be thirsty but my muscles could take me much further. Only an hour and half passed. That’s about roughly 9 miles? That’s less than half of what I was supposed to do!! What a disappointment. I have 6 weeks before the SF marathon. I’ll let you guys know how that goes.
aerial view of Foster City
